Made in Chile

Chile has this bad habit of being in the news solely for terrible reasons. Take September 2015: an 8.4 earthquake hits the country and is followed by around a thousand aftershocks. But among the pictures of fallen houses and coastal damages and the half-sad, half-numb resignation that proceeds them there was good news: the apparition of an innocuous and universal cancer drug, made in Chile. This is the promise of Andes Biotechnologies, a Chilean biotech company whose invention has just been cleared by the FDA for clinical trials in the US.

The FDA granted approval on September 13th for the start of US-based clinical trials on Andes Biotechnologies’ cancer drug. The product has been tested in animal models, specifically mice and monkeys, where the treatment has proven both universal and innocuous.

Sounds too good to be true? Too unlikely?

It’s actually even more so.

Originally written for Nature Biotechnology. Check out the full post in the Trade Secrets Blog.